Page 22 of Fallen Dove (Fallen Lords MC 2nd Gen #1)

Mason

I shoved my hands in my cut as I walked down the hallway to the room set up for filming.

I should’ve said no. Should’ve told Wrecker to shove it when he pawned the first interview off on me. But instead I’d nodded like some obedient soldier and agreed to be Mac’s guinea pig.

The office door opened. Mac stuck her head out with her brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail, and glasses perched on her nose. She smiled when she saw me. Not the fake TV smile. Just… Mac.

“You ready, Mason?”

I grunted.

“Not sure that’s the word I’d use.”

She chuckled.

“Fair enough. Come on in. It won’t be that bad.”

I stepped inside and blinked at the flood of light. The room looked different, like some other place altogether. Black curtains covered the walls to block the glare from the windows. A camera sat on a tripod facing a plain chair in the center. Two box lights angled down, hot and bright, and baked the room in artificial daylight.

Mac motioned toward the chair.

“Sit. Pretend you’re not about to be famous.”

“Not interested in famous,”

I muttered, and lowered myself into the chair. It creaked under my weight. I shifted, tugged at the hem of my cut, tried not to scowl at the damn lens pointed straight at me.

“Perfect,”

Mac said, and slid behind the monitor set up on a folding table. Her voice softened.

“I know this feels weird. Just remember, you’re not talking to the camera. You’re talking to me. Don’t think about the camera. Just you and me having a conversation.”

Easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one sweating bullets with a thousand-watt bulb in her face.

I dragged a hand over my jaw.

“What do you want me to say?”

“Nothing rehearsed. Just honest,”

she said.

“I’ll ask you about some of the footage we’ve got. You give me your take. No right or wrong answers.”

“Sounds like a trap.”

She grinned.

“Only if you make it one.”

She fiddled with a few cords, and then held up a hand. “Rolling.”

My gut twisted.

Mac glanced up from her monitor.

“Okay, Mason. Let’s warm up. Tell me, what does the Social Club mean to the Fallen Lords?”

I exhaled slowly, staring past the lens.

“It’s… ours. Not just a bar. It’s where we come together. Where we’ve built something solid. It’s for the town, too.. We give ‘em a place to drink, laugh, and blow off steam.”

My throat tightened.

“It’s family.”

Mac nodded, her eyes warm.

“That’s good. Really good. See? Not so bad.”

I relaxed a fraction. Just talking. I could do that.

She clicked her mouse, and the monitor flickered. Footage rolled of Wrecker out at the farm, shirtless in the July heat, tossing hay bales like they weighed nothing. Alice laughed in the background, giving him shit for showing off.

I barked a laugh.

“Christ, he’s such a ham.”

“Yeah?”

Mac smiled.

“What do you see when you watch this?”

“That man’ll do anything for his woman, even if it means being an idiot on camera. He pretends he hates the spotlight, but look at him eating it up. Loves making her laugh.”

“Good sound bite,”

Mac murmured and typed something on her laptop. She let the clip run a few more seconds before cutting it.

“Okay. Let’s try another.”

I nodded and leaned back. This wasn’t so bad.

Then the screen flickered again, and my heart slammed against my ribs.

The alley.

Adley and me.

Pressed up against the brick wall behind the Social Club. Her hands in my hair, and my mouth devouring hers like I hadn’t eaten in years.

I shot to my feet.

“What the fuck is that?”

Mac held up both hands. “Mason-”

“Turn it off.”

My voice cracked like a whip.

“Right now. Turn that shit off.”

She clicked pause, the frozen image of Adley’s flushed face filling the screen. My lungs locked up. I raked a hand through my hair, pacing.

“How the hell did you get that?”

Mac’s voice stayed even, calm.

“We installed cameras around the Social Club and clubhouse, remember? Standard coverage. It’s all automatic. I didn’t go looking for this, Mason, it came to me.”

I spun on her.

“Who’s seen it?”

“Just me. This is all just raw footage. I pulled it myself.”

I stalked closer, and pointed at the frozen screen.

“Delete it. Right now. Wipe it.”

Her eyes softened, but her mouth tightened. “I can’t.”

“The hell you can’t.”

My voice shook, half fury, half fear.

“Mason,”

she said gently.

“I get it. I do. This is private. It wasn’t meant to be filmed. But I have a job to do. This show is about your world, your lives, the truth of it. And that-”

she nodded at the screen.

“that is real. Raw. Compelling.”

“Compelling?”

I barked a bitter laugh.

“That’s Adley. Slayer’s daughter. You think he’s gonna sit back and watch his little girl being mauled in an alley? No one knows about me and Adley.”

Mac cringed.

“I kind of figured that since you two barely look at each other when other people are around.”

“So delete it,”

I ordered again.

She shook her head.

“You guys all signed contracts that whatever the camera record we are free to use.”

“So who cares if this is going to fuck everything up as long as you get some good TV out of it?”

I growled.

“I’m not airing this tomorrow,”

she said firmly.

“You have time to tell the club and Slayer. No one will see this for probably two weeks. After that, the network will see it, and it won’t be in my hands anymore.”

I dropped back into the chair and buried my face in my hands. Two weeks. Christ.

Mac’s voice softened further.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Mason. Or Adley. I like her. I like you. But I can’t pretend this doesn’t exist.”

I dragged my hands down my face, stared at the screen. Adley’s lips swollen from my kiss. My hand splayed over her hip. Her eyes closed like she was giving me everything.

The most perfect moment of my life. Captured. Exposed.

“Son of a bitch,”

I muttered.

“I’ll lock the file,”

Mac said.

“No one sees it for two weeks. You have my word.”

“Some word,”

I snapped, but the venom drained out of me quick. She was just doing her job.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

She sighed.

“Talk to her. Decide what you both want. I’ll give you a couple of weeks, Mason. Use them.”

I stood, my legs shaky. The light felt too hot, the air too thick.

“This was supposed to be harmless,”

I said, my voice low.

“Not so much harmless as honest,”

Mac corrected gently.

I couldn’t look at the screen again. Couldn’t see what we’d done blown up in high definition. I stormed out of the office, the door slamming behind me, and my chest tight like I’d swallowed fire.

The empty hallway spread out before me. No one there. No one knew what was on that footage except for Mac.

Adley and me, we were a secret no longer.

And in two weeks, the whole damn club would know.